Mad World: One girl band cover and tribute to my favourite band Tears for Fears + analysis of the song

Above: My tribute One-girl-band cover to TEARS FOR FEARS (Mad World). All recorded in one go and layering up instruments. Press Play to listen to my version while you read the rest of the article. It has some build up at the end.

This is a song that comes to me whenever I feel trapped

Circles within Circles... this is a very Mad World

I remember it was a moody day that day... the same way today has been... I remember the sky was dark and ominous and I was inside watching it from the window. People up and down the street with their umbrellas, hurrying their pace... trapped too. We all have those circles we seem unable to leave... And I grabbed some pieces of paper and watercolours and started to draw circles... quite a lot of them... some becoming spirals, others concentric. And I was there surrounded by this papers and I decided to do this video.

Recording the music

It was an spontaneous recording all on the go... harmonies are mostly improvised... and I grabbed some of the folk instruments I usually play trying to make the song a bit my own too. I started with the piano and lead vocals and then I built in some backing vocals. Then I felt it had to be a version closer to my style... so on the second half expect some "ethereal ghost celtic blend) in which you can see me playing harp, hammered dulcimer, flute, and even a jug of water as percussion. Still most of my arrangements are inspired in the original version of the song, as released by Tears for Fears in 1982. Despite being a slower moody version on piano this version is inspired in the Tear for Fears arrangements.
It was very much unprepared, and "frantic" as the circles patterns became tangled. My tempo is a bit faster than the original. This mad world is frantic sometimes.

Above: Me playing bansuri flute in this recording

Pd. Yes, I play a water can at the end. I would love a bass drum very much but meanwhile these work. ;)

Being grateful to my music influences

Tears for Fears is my favourite band of all times... as a musician and female vocalist with ethereal sound, It's very rare that my listeners gather the dots and realize how big the influence of this band was in me yet it is very present.
To be honest I learned to sing with these electropop British band... still active.
I have never considered myself "fan" of any musician, but I do love their work, and it's the only group I own the whole discography :) since those wonderful 80s. I remember walking with my walkman playing a cassette of "The Seeds of Love". I remember all my classmates back in those years... while they would put stickers on their folders of their temporary heart-throbs. They are not even good looking, they used to tell me. They were fine but my admiration was focused on their lyrics and vocal delivery... also in some rare and less known songs that everybody overlooked. The lyrics sometimes were ominous and sad but wrapped me conveniently as I grew from child to teenager.
So yes Tears for Fears is one of my major music influences and I say "is" and not "was" because I still enjoy listening to them. Of course when I first released a CD I posted a little "Thank you" note. I would like to hand it to them one day. So for all the times I get the "you sound like Enya" and though I appreciate the compliment in all honesty I must reply "I listen to Tears for Fears" here is my little tribute to state it once more. I was fortunate that Roland himself followed me on twitter a while and Curt even shared my cover on twitter. I really never got much feedback of it, but just the fact they got to listen to it it's thrill enough.
There are a few lines in my own songs here and that themselves little tributes to Tears for Fears (like Easter Eggs). Thus I have a song called "In my mind´s eye" which is a major line in "Head over Heels" and my song "Away" begins with the words "Memories Fade" title of another less known Tears for Fears song.

Famous Gary Jules version is lovely but just a cover... acknowledging Tears For Fears as original performers

Above: Mad World Single Cover source/license here

Mad World is a rather well known and iconic song... Everybody nowadays sort of can "hum" it... but they usually get the credit wrong. The song was recorded again as a cover by artist Gary Jules as part of the soundtrack of the movie Donny Darko. Gary's cover became a hit in Christmas 2003, and somehow everyone seemed to forget the song has been made two decades prior having been released in 1982. As beautiful and melancholic as the cover was, the fact that many say "Mad Word by Gary Jules" annoys me... how can they forget the original source? By the way, the movie was deliciously weird and remarkable and has become a cult on its own right... but I would like "humble tribute" to make a call back to the original source of the song... A song that is perfect for the crazy times we live, when we get trapped in its circles within circles
And in everyway original was better, at least for me... and the teenager-me that broke the cassette several times listening to Tears for Fears first album The Hurting in which it was included.

Lyrics (Written by Roland Orzabal, originally sung by Curth Smith)

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places
Worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere
Going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression
No expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow
No tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
Mad world
Mad world
Mad world
Mad world
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday
Happy birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen
Sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me
No one knew me
Hello teacher, tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me
Look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
Mad world
Mad world
Mad world
Mad world
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very very
Mad world
Mad world
"Halargian" world
Mad world

Note: There is a lot of controversy with that final line.... Hallogeon world, Halargian World, enlarging your world... illogical world... well it's part of intrinsic mystery now :)

I absolutely love that the originalelectropop version goes "crazy" at the end of the song adding noises and dissonant notes, and ends suspended in that moment of craziness.
Funny anecdote: I seriously let my rat Ritva roam on the keyboard to archieve that effect but she was a very good pianist at the end... and we did not include it. Aw, I sort of regret that.

My own interpretation of the lyrics

This is one of my favorite lyrics of all time.

Being written by Roland Orzabal when he was only 19, the words of the song are rather ambiguous and open for interpretation... In general the overall vibe is very hopeless.. someone disillusioned, trapped in the routine of a life that is leading nowhere. Shallow routines that doesn't provide happiness. Circles... and circles within circles, in which everyone seem to be trapped, inert and unable to break through. There are feelings that are made numb, as if feeling might be too hurting. In general it feels very lonely trapped in the grid, in the patterns. Abiding what we are supposed to do without seeking what we are meant to be. Having some moments of "happiness" Happy Birthday that somehow become as meaningless as the rest of our routines...
We live in a very "mad world"... and it seems than it's even crazier and cold now than when the song was written... We have become "islands" behind our smartphones... I also seek sometimes escape in my dreams
We are seeking meaning but nothing makes sense sometimes... this world is mad and "Illogical"
As an artist the song also touch some strings... I'm not meant to abide all those rules... it would make me feel my life is not worth... I need to find what I'm meant for... not to feel like this...
When it says "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I ever had", they were at the time interested in the concept of "nightmares" as a way to release tensions.

Final thoughts

Above: Circles within Circles, circles becoming spirals... where are we going?

Today it was very stormy
black clouds hovered over my head
I felt the weight of many things over my shoulders
I stopped by the cafeteria and grabbed the newspaper...

Do I belong? This is a very mad world

If you interpret this song differently let me know in the comments, hope you like my humble version, so if you want to listen to a soft electronica and half folk Celtic version of it including me playing percussion with a jug of water watch the video. I welcome feedback but most importantly I recommend you check this band. Sure they had many hits back in the day "Shout", "Everybody wants to rule the world", but it's their lesser known ones the ones that haunted me.

Circles becoming spirals... maybe there is a way out

Circles becoming spirals is a line of a new song I'm writing and I can see how it may has been born from this day.

So maybe we think we move in circles yet we are spiraling out and still heading somewhere and not "nowhere" as the song sings. Maybe each turn we think that way, but we are really on some kind of path. Feels more hopeful.